Surfing the Net with Kids: E.B. White

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August 7, 2002

Dear Reader,

As you may may recall, Surfnetkids used to send two mailings a week — but a year ago we cut down to once a week because most of our sponsors had reduced their budgets.

Now we’ve been contacted by some sponsors who want to reach you with their offers directly. I explained that Surfnetkids NEVER reveals readers’ email addresses (your privacy is extremely important to us) so renting the Surfnetkids list IS OUT OF THE QUESTION.

But I did come up with a compromise solution. In order to both meet our increasing costs and accomodate these new sponsors, from time to time (perhaps once or twice a month) Surfnetkids will publish an EXTRA Edition that contains a single offer from a single sponsor. These occassional EXTRA Editions will always come directly from us, and will only contain offers I believe you will appreciate. I look forward to your feedback.

Summer Reading Success Get a CD-ROM World Book Encyclopedia, a $69.95 value, with purchase of Hooked on Phonics! Easy for parents, fun for children, and recommended by educators. Discover why over 2 million families have purchased Hooked on Phonics to help their children succeed.

Just for DVD Owners Rent DVD movies online and have them mailed to your home with Netflix.com. I love renting DVDs from Netflix.com because I can rent as many DVDs as I want each and every month for one low monthly fee. Try it yourself and see! Here’s a NetFlix.com trial courtesy of Surfnetkids.com:

See ya on the Net, Barbara J. Feldman “Surfing the Net with Kids”

P.S. This week Printables Club Members also: 1) learn about two no-cost resources for researching your family ancestry 2) learn about a great Berlin Wall site, recommended by an Australian teenager 3) learn about building an online income stream 4) get a two-page Internet enrichment printable of today’s topic

The summer release of Stuart Little 2 prompted me to see what I could find online about award-winning author E.B. White. In the world of children’s literature, his claims to fame are the three beloved classics Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web and The Trumpet of the Swan. He also co- authored my favorite guide to the writer’s craft, Elements of Style.

Whether you’re reading Charlotte’s Web with your class or on your own, you’ll have fun with this collection of two quizzes, one word search, and two related art activities (including a paper maché piggy bank built around a balloon.) Don’t miss the letter from E.B. White, in which he answers questions frequently asked by children, and the text of the entire first chapter. For links to even more Charlotte’s Web vocabulary and math pages, click on Online Fun, listed under Activities.

E.B. White wrote books for children and adults, as well as writing essays and drawing sketches for The New Yorker magazine. “Funnily enough for such a famous writer, he always said that he found writing difficult and bad for one’s disposition, but he kept at it!” Exactly how did E.B. White come up with the ideas for Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web? Scroll down to Stories Behind the Books.

“All that I ever hope to say in books is that I love the world. I guess you can find that in there, if you dig around. Animals are part of my world and I try to report them faithfully and with respect.” Readers of all ages will enjoy the five-minute audio clips of readings from Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan and Stuart Little, while teens and adults will enjoy the collection of New York Times’ articles by and about E.B. White.

Each year, Mrs. Taverna’s second-grade class reads Charlotte’s Web, and each year (since 1998) the students then add a little something to their Pocantico Hills School Charlotte’s Web site. Highlights include the ABCs of Charlotte’s Web (A is for Avery, B is for Barn), Chapter Summaries, The Mystery Quotes Quiz, Charlotte’s Web Trivia Crossword Puzzles, and a big section on Spiders.

The official movie site for Stuart Little 2 gives you a choice of two entrances: Enhanced or Standard. While I usually choose Enhanced because of the speed of my Internet connection, I found the Standard interface less confusing and a more direct path to the fun stuff I wanted. And which stuff was that? Games (for seven games that you can play online or download to your PC or Mac) and Cool Stuff (for e-cards and computer wallpaper.)